Upper Midwest Gardening: Too many types of Lettuce.

Started another thread in Houseplants. I did not realize how many different kinds of Lettuce there are. I can't even guess. I just did a short search for Romaine Lettuce seeds on eBay and was blown away. Settled on Little Gem. Anyone with any experience? I am looking for something easy to grow indoors under lights. I figured green and small might work.

This is my second season growing lettuces under lights. The best varieties for under lights are the leaf lettuces (did some research last year). Head lettuces not so good although I found an older packet of bibb lettuce that I'm trying just for fun. The leaf lettuces I'm growing are 'Tango' and 'Asian Red', both from Baker Creek. They were sown on 12/31 and sprouted within the week. They're still too young to start harvesting leaves unless you want micro greens and plan on almost continuous sowing. I'm thinking I'll be able to start harvesting in another couple of weeks so figure 4 to 5 weeks. If you top dress with some compost or fertilize with some seaweed and fish emulsion, you can keep them growing for 2 to 3 months. Keep them on the cool side - 50's or 60's - and close to the lights. I did try spinach last year but didn't do quite as well so not trying again. Used my saved Olive Garden to-go clear plastic salad containers with punched holes in the bottom - perfect size, especially for my constant rearranging under the lights. Extra containers sat upside down over the sown containers until the seeds sprouted. They're now one of my favorite freebie growing containers.

Congrats on the lettuce sprouts! I harvested enough last week for salad for 4 people and it's ready to pick again. The really tender leaf lettuces are good with sliced radishes and garlic olive oil and pomegranate balsamic vinegar.

hill - it depends on how much soil you want to put in. I can get 3" of soil into those OG salad to-go containers. If the soil compacts a bit from watering, you can top-dress with some compost or worm castings. At the end of 3 or 4 months, it's pretty much a mass of roots in there. Since it's an indoor winter thing for me, it usually works out pretty well.